32nd Annual European AIChE and Delta Process Academy Seminar

October 11th, 2016

Safe start-up of chemical plants

Consequences for design, engineering, commissioning and operation

Excellence in safety is the key to address the increasing complexity of industrial production processes and

the increase of rules and regulations both in Europe and internationally.

One of the priorities is reduction of the number of incidents during start-up and non-routine operation of

chemical plants.

Experts in the field of Safety in Design will give an overview of methodologies and programs developed to

improve process safety in the chemical industry and related sectors.

The 32nd annual European AIChE and Delta Process Academy Seminar is an effective platform for interacting

and sharing insights with industry leaders and senior professionals.

Location

Domein Martinus AIChE NL/B Secretariat DPA Secretariat

Sniederpad 133 Mrs. Kitty Bentvelsen Mrs. Michèle Celis

2980 Halle – Zoersel aiche@kborganisatietalent.nl mcelis@essenscia.be

Belgium Phone: +31-6-41464811 Phone: +32 2 238 97 87

AIChE NL/B Sponsors

BASF ExxonMobil LyondellBasell Sweco Belgium UOP

CB&I Fluor Royal Haskoning DHV Technip

DOW KH Engineering Shell Total

32nd Annual European AIChE and Delta Process Academy Seminar

October 11th, 2016

13.30 Registration and coffee

14.00 Opening

Frank Daman – President Delta Process Academy, General Manager Evonik Antwerp, Board Member essenscia Flanders

14.15 ’25 years lessons learned start-up and non-routine operation of a cracker plant’

Prof. Geert Vercruysse – Process Safety Expert, BASF

15.00 ‘Safe Start-up culture’

Marcel Beekman – Process Technology Manager, Fluor

15.45 Break

16.15 ‘Pressure Relief Systems – Thinking Ahead for a Safe Start-up‘

Bob Siml – Process Safety Consulting, Siemens

17.00 ‘Design considerations for switching a cracking furnace between normal operations and decoke mode’

Menno van der Bij – Deputy Manager Electrical and Instrumentation department, Technip

17.45 Closure

Joost Van Roost – President, ExxonMobil Benelux

18.00 Drinks

18.30 Dinner

AIChE Executive Officers Delta Process Academy Governance Board

Iek Risseeuw Chairman – Technip Frank Daman, President Delta Process Academy – Evonik

Gijs van Lammeren Treasurer - O&GBISS BVBA Geert Boogaerts, Delta Process Coordinator – essenscia

Mathijs van Es Secretary - CB&I Frank Beckx, Managing Director – essenscia Flanders

Maarten Vriezen Officer at Large - Tebodin Marnix Mahieu, Managing Director – Kronos

Cristiane Visser Officer at Large – Shell Nico Hertoghe, Core Safety Engineering - ExxonMobil

Sander Balkenende Officer at Large - Fluor Pol Hoorelbeke, Vice-president Safety - Total

Prof. Philip de Smedt Officer at Large - Total Geert Vercruysse, Process Safety Expert - BASF

Jos Vankevelaer Officer at Large - BASF Jan Seynaeve – Bayer, Co-founder Safety Engineering

Lieven Stalmans Officer at Large - Borealis KULeuven

Geert Reyniers Officer at Large - Jacobs

The Netherlands / Belgium Section of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers is a regional association of

professionals promoting Chemical Engineering and related disciplines, and facilitating exchanges and interaction

between all actors of the process industries and related sectors. We organize lecture dinner meetings, plant visits and

Seminars. AIChE NL/B events address chemical engineering and technology in the industrial context.

Delta Process Academy (DPA) is a knowledge platform for the chemical industry in Flanders to exchange

experience on process safety. The stewardship of DPA lies within essenscia vlaanderen, the federation for the

chemical and life sciences industry, that provides organizational, logistical and administrative support.

Geert Vercruysse

BASF

25 years lessons learned start-up and non-routine

operation of a cracker plant

The process safety concept of a plant is determined during the

engineering phase of a project. Once the process is started this

safety concept will be validated during the life cycle of the plant,

based on operational experience and lessons learned from

incidents. In the presentation three incidents, related to start up and

shutdown, will be elaborated in detail and its impact given on the

process safety concept. Further it will be illustrated that similar

scenarios can/could occur in different process unit set ups.

Prof. Ir. Geert Vercruysse graduated in 1992 at the University of

Ghent. He started his career at BASF Antwerp as a production

manager for the EB/Styrene plant where he became project

manager in 1998 and plant manager in 2001. As of 2004 he became

plant manager at the Steamcracker, which is also located on the

Antwerp site. In October 2012 he took the responsibility of the

Butadiene Project as Project Manager. At present he is responsible

for aligning all acquisitions in BASF Netherlands towards the BASF

internal guidelines for process safety. Since October 2010 Geert

combines his professional activities with the role of guest professor

in Process Safety Engineering at KU Leuven and University of

Ghent.

Marcel Beekman

FLUOR

Safe Start-up culture

Safe Start-up development should be done early in design phase.

Considerations for Design, Engineering and Construction phases

are discussed:

Company Culture

Design and good operability practices

Safety in Construction

Turn Over Development and Safe Hand Over

Training and familiarization of Operations

Pre-commissioning

PSSR/Operational Readiness

Commissioning and Start-up

Marcel is chemical engineer with 30 years operational and

engineering experience. Expert areas are Process Plant Startup,

Chlorine-Alkali plant technology and QHSE management.

Project experience include design, plant replacements and revamps,

Commissioning and Start-up and environmental projects. He is

experienced in construction support, Punching, Commissioning and

Start-up, Plant turnover, Safety and HAZOP Studies, Plant

troubleshooting and optimization, research activities and QHSE-

improvement.

Bob Siml

SIEMENS

Pressure Relief Systems – Thinking Ahead for a Safe

Start-up

It is essential to have a thorough Management Of Change (MOC)

process in place to identify pressure relief systems that may need to

be adjusted. Analysis tools can improve the detailed analysis of

complex pressure relief systems such as dynamic simulation, QRA

and Safety Instrumented Systems. Non-normal operations during

start-up should also be considered to ensure proper safeguards are

in-place. Further, training, operational procedures and the limitations

of relief systems must be considered. One of the challenges is to

consolidate all documentation in a digital platform to facilitate PHA’s

and prestart-up reviews. Also addressed are lessons learned in the

design, procurement, and commissioning process.

Bob Siml is a Fellow Engineer / S.M.E. with Siemens Process Safety

Consulting. He has 37 years of hands-on experience in research,

design, construction, and startup in specialty/commodity chemicals,

petrochemicals, pharmaceutical, and refinery industries with 29

years of specialization in overpressure protection and relief disposal

systems. He is currently serving at the technical lead and

advisor. His responsibilities also include leading the continuous

improvement program, developing internal guidelines / training

material, and assisting the quality assurance auditing

process. Notable achievements include an award from the Board

of Directors of Dow Chemical for innovations in the relief system

design and disposal systems for chlorine liquefaction plants,

evaluation of several flares at BP Texas City after the Isom

explosion, and involvement in incident investigations associated with

relief systems. (SME = Subject Matter Expert)

Menno van der Bij

TECHNIP

Design considerations for switching a cracking

furnace between normal operations and decoke mode

This paper presents the design considerations for the change-over

system for the motor operated cracked gas valve (CGV) and decoke

effluent valve (DEV) of ethylene cracking furnaces. A steam cracking

furnace regularly requires decoking due to coke formation inside the

radiant coil. The furnace is at end of run (EOR) condition when the

furnace reaches one of the EOR criteria. Then the furnace has to be

switched from cracking mode to decoking mode. During decoking

mode, air is introduced into the furnace in order to gently burn off the

coke layer. Switching a furnace from cracking mode

(steam-hydrocarbon service) to decoking mode (steam-air service)

requires an adequate handling of the involved risks in order to

guarantee safety for people and environment. This paper will explain

the functionality and the safety principles of the system resulting from

the performed hazard and operability (HAZOP) study and safety

integrity level (SIL) review meetings. It addresses how the cracking

and decoking mode switch-over can be designed to comply with

today’s standards.

Menno van der Bij is Deputy Manager Electrical and Instrumentation

department at Technip Benelux in The Netherlands. He joined KTI,

now Technip Benelux, in 1985 as instrument designer and has been

responsible for instrument design and engineering in Hydrogen,

Ethylene and Gas treatment projects (onshore and offshore). He is

member of ISO/TC 244 and CEN/TC 186 “Industrial furnaces and

associated process equipment” standardization committees. He

participates in the WIB WG functional safety and the NEN SIL-

Platform.